Ri is a lens-based visual artist from Myanmar. This project began in 2021, after the military coup that overthrew the elected government. It started with a question asked quietly to friends and family: “When did you first learn to fear the military?” They started exploring their own memories of growing up under military rules.
For decades, Myanmar’s people have lived under military rule. Fear and silence became inherited habits. Stories of uprisings—in 1973, 1988, and 1997—survive as whispers between generations, told like ghost stories so that children would know what not to say aloud. When the military regime returned in 2021, people filled the streets again, banging pots and pans to drive away the evil. Doctors, teachers, and workers walked out of their offices. But cruelty outlasted courage. Many photographers were arrested. Some never returned. Ri, too, hid their camera. Images were lost to fear and memory.
Unable to document openly, Ri turned inward, revisiting their own childhood, and the education system, propaganda, and entertainment that the regime controlled. Through mixed media, archives, and reconstructed images, they try to translate what cannot safely be seen.
This work resists forgetting. In a place where remembering is a dangerous act, memory itself becomes rebellion. What We Remember, When We Remember gathers fragments—questions, recollections, and silences—as a way to survive. In Myanmar, to remember is to resist.
Ri is a lens-based visual artist from Myanmar whose practice explores queer identity, intimacy, and belonging. Their work weaves together visual poetry, geopolitical landscapes, and narratives shaped by Myanmar’s complex political realities, tracing personal and collective experiences of vulnerability and resistance within shifting social terrains.
Ri’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Jakarta Photo Festival, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Verzasca Foto Festival (Switzerland), and Asia Art Biennale (Taiwan). In 2024, Ri completed a 50-day residency in Switzerland supported by Pro Helvetia New Delhi and was selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass by the World Press Photo Foundation.
stories that have connections to their country’s complex political situations. Their artworks have been showcased at international photo festivals and venues, such as the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center, Jakarta Photo Festival, Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kochi, India, Verzasca Foto Festival in Switzerland, and Asia Art Biennale in Taiwan. They recently joined a 50-day artist-in-residency program in Switzerland, supported by Pro Helvetia New Delhi. They were also selected to be part of Joop Swart Master Class 2024 organized by the World Press Photo Foundation.
